Miraz Jordan

The second book was as gripping as the first — Dead Man Deep (Detective Shona Oliver Book 2) by Lynne McEwan. 📚

Interesting fact about Beaufort's Dyke, a real-life natural trench between Scotland and Ireland and a key plot point: well over a million tons of munitions have been dumped there.

A compelling read — I stayed up late for this one. In Dark Water (Detective Shona Oliver Book 1) by Lynne McEwan. Now to buy the next in series. 📚

The author manages to convey the sound of a southwest Scots accent with minimal gestures in the text.

This was a complicated book, and I still haven't figured out what to say about it — Deaths of Jocasta by J.M. Redmann. 📚

It was a tangled book of emotions, sex, poison pen letters, anti-abortion protestors, vicious murders, all while lead character PI Micky undertakes major life changes. Hmmm.

I was slow to get into this book, but then I was hooked and reading solidly: Death by the Riverside (Micky Knight Mysteries Book 1) by J.M. Redmann. 📚

It's so refreshing and rare to have an actual lesbian protagonist. Some parts are definitely NSFW. Micky is a survivor to be sure!

Another good read: Killing Grounds (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 8) by Dana Stabenow. The 4th of July hijinks were fun too. 📚

Cal Meany is a cheat, a poacher, an abusive father and an adulterous husband. So nobody is that surprised when Kate Shugak finds his body floating in the bay.

I see Joy Ellis as an author I enjoy but this book just didn't sit right with me. In The River's Edge (Jackman & Evans Book 10) we sometimes see things from the point of view of the baddies who used veiled language to talk about things like The Target or Phase 2.

Meanwhile the cops can't find out much but sometimes gasp when they see a photo, but the reader doesn't necessarily know what's going on.

By the end the detectives rely on a mystery source to reveal things to them. The most astute reader would not have been able to solve this series of crimes because the info just wasn't there.

All a bit frustrating really. 📚

Not entirely happy with A Death at Seascape House (A Jemima Jago Mystery Book 1) by Emma Jameson. Such a lot of miserable people and a couple of poorly thought out scenes, eg how did the killer get out of the ‘locked room’? Scilly Isles setting was interesting. 📚

Another enjoyable read from Marion Todd: A Blind Eye (Detective Clare Mackay Book 7). 📚

a local solicitor is found in his car, throat slit.

DI Clare Mackay … learns that Harry was not the upstanding man he seemed to be. … Then the wife of one of Harry’s colleagues is discovered dead…

Went back to a book I started weeks ago, and recalled why I stopped reading. I'm now declaring it abandoned at 18%. Spite Your Face (Detective Carol Wren Mysteries Book 1) by Emmy Ellis isn't for me and I shouldn't have bought it. It takes us into the mind of a depraved serial killer. Just No! 📚

Breakup: … when Alaska awakens from its Arctic slumber. Snows melt. Rivers flood. Winter's secrets emerge.

Kate is having an extremely bad day. Then things get worse … and worse … and worse.

Another excellent read: Breakup (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 7) by Dana Stabenow. 📚

Greedy developers are looking for ways to exploit resources the Native people should be controlling. Luckily Kate gets pulled into the whole thing by her grandmother Emaa.

Blood Will Tell (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 6) puts Kate and Mutt in Anchorage, a place where Kate does not want to be. 📚

Another Dana Stabenow book down: Play With Fire (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 5). This one wasn't my favourite but is still a reasonable read. It's heavy on the discussion of extremist religion; not so big on the action that made the last few so compelling. 📚

Stayed up too late last night reading Dana Stabenow's A Cold Blooded Business (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 4). 📚

Kate went undercover at the oil drilling site on The Slope to learn who was bringing in drugs. She made herself a bit too comfortable. But that didn't last long …

Wow! Dead in the Water (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 3) by Dana Stabenow went by so fast as I had to keep reading. 📚

I wouldn't last 2 seconds on the crab boat Kate has to work on for weeks to solve this mystery. The smell! The heaving seas! The ice! The gruelling work hours! The killers!

Dana Stabenow's consummate skill as a storyteller is evident in A Fatal Thaw (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 2). 📚

With lesser writers intensely descriptive passages make me (metaphorically — Kindles are expensive) throw the book across the room. Her descriptions draw me in, involve me…

A Cold Day for Murder (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 1) by Dana Stabenow sets Kate on the trail of a missing Park Ranger, and the missing guy who went looking for him. 📚

I love the way Stabenow somehow makes the reader an inhabitant in the culture and landscape rather than just a tourist.

Such a good book, as are all in this series! Not the Ones Dead (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 23) by Dana Stabenow. 📚

The only thing wrong is I've finished reading and have to wait for the next in series.

White nationalists create trouble in The Park. Kate investigates. An excellent read.

I really enjoyed The Complete Blue Ridge Mountains Mysteries 1–5 by Cathy Pickens. 📚

I very much liked the main character, Avery, and the author seemed very grounded in the setting — specially interesting as it was totally unfamiliar to me. Make sense:

set in small-town South Carolina, where Cathy grew up and where her family has lived for 300 years.

Somehow I had missed reading Midnight Come Again (A Kate Shugak Investigation Book 10) by Dana Stabenow, even though I’d read all but #23. 📚

Now put right and it was, as expected, an excellent read!

I love the Alaska setting in these books and the characters are favourites too.

I enjoyed reading Three Dog Knight (A Jorja Knight Private Investigator Mystery Book 3) by Alice Bienia. 📚

Jorja is one unlucky detective who narrowly escapes with her life on several occasions. The book held my interest though, and I expect to read more in the series.

Checked the Library's ebooks and found Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Comic Issues #1-5:

… shows what life is like for cadets at the galaxy's greatest school! Witness the student days of the iconic cast before they joined the Enterprise!

Never was a comics reader, but loving this. 📚

I added the RSS — Bring Crime out of the Closet | A celebration of LGBTQ+ characters in crime fiction 📚:

to examine … how LGBTQ+ characters have been handled in crime fiction … from first … being cast as the villain/victim, to today’s much more diverse and welcoming literary landscape.

I enjoyed reading The Dead Swede (The Sheridan County Mysteries Book 3) by Erin Lark Maples. 📚

There was a heap of terminology relevant to brewing beer as the book is set at a local homebrewing contest. I hit the dictionary a fair few times. Enjoyable story though.

Another good read from Jana DeLeon, with some switching around of secondary characters and an intriguing plot — Fortune Teller. I enjoyed this book. Even with so many prior books in the series, and a few long-running gags, such as Gertie's handbag, the author has kept things fresh. 📚

A new series but another excellent police procedural from Anne Shillolo: Murder at Elk Ridge (An Elk Ridge Murder Mystery Book 1). Nice character introduction and development, great setting, good story. Can’t wait to read the next in series 📚